Flock by Night
by Khatt
Summary: The Doctor and Peri receive a threatening message - but who is being held captive by the shadowed Flock? And what importance is she to the Doctor?


The soft _fwip _of falling paper called the Doctor's attention away from his console, and he strode immediately to the TARDIS doors to retrieve the envelope that had just arrived.

"What is it, Doctor?" Peri asked as he turned the letter over in his hands. Paper, it seemed. Indigenous to trees from the Solar System, but not Earth. From some time after the terraforming of the rest of their planets, then.

"Mail. A bit old fashioned, perhaps, but sometimes technology isn't the best option. Or any option at all." He took a seat in the wingback armchair stationed close to the console and attempted to open the square envelope.

Peri leaned past him to look at the interior of the time machine's doors. "I didn't even know we _had_ a mail slot."

"Well, usually we don't." The Doctor picked at the red seal with a fingernail. "But it appears when needed." He continued chipping away at the stubborn wax, unable to open the letter. "If I've told Albus once, I've told him a hundred times—one year's teaching experience was more than enough for me. That school of his— Oh, hello! That's curious."

"What's curious?"

"There's a signet on here I'm not familiar with, hold on," he rummaged through several pockets before finding his spectacles, polished one lens on the hem of his cricket jacket and placed them on the bridge of his nose. He squinted at the seal. "It's strange, almost like bird's wing."

"You look like an old man when you do that."

"Do what?"

"Squint through your glasses. Why do you have to squint if you're wearing glasses?"

"It helps me see."

"They must not be very good glasses. I don't think you even need them," Perry challenged as she leaned over the back of his chair. "What are the markings on the front?"

"Now that's the strange thing—the TARDIS translates every language, except mine of course. She was built by Time Lords, after all, and doesn't feel the need. But if it can be read, she _should_ relay it into English." The Doctor sniffed the parchment of the envelope, then held it to his ear. "Meaning these squiggles can't be read. Not as they are, in any case."

"More likely the translator circuit is broken."

"Feeling impertinent today, aren't we? Well, my useless spectacles and I will check on that. Meanwhile, you may want to wash up, I expect there are coordinates hidden in that envelope. We'll be out amongst people soon, and you've got something all over your face."

Peri felt along her mouth and jaw, pulling her hand away and finding it clean. "What is it?"

"A very disagreeable smirk," the Doctor told her as he lifted himself out of the chair, placing the letter on the seat. He got to his knees at the console and turned to look at the underside, glancing at Peri and resolutely replacing his spectacles before returning to his adjustments.

He removed from an interior pocket a device that Peri had seen occasionally around the TARDIS, but never in use. It was a silver shaft with black markings and a small empty hoop at the end. The device trilled as the Doctor worked, and Peri, becoming bored, picked up the letter. The markings on it—'chicken scratch' her mother would have called it—wavered slightly in rhythm with the Doctor's tinkering.

"Whatever you're doing, keep doing it. It's starting to come clear."

"What? You're not serious."

"See for yourself." Peri tossed the parchment with a flick of her wrist. As it sailed toward the Doctor, its spin slowed, then reversed. The edges of the letter ruffled and expanded into papery wings, which caught the air an instant before reaching the Doctor's hand. The letter soared upward and made a vulture's circle around the console. On its second revolution, it ripped itself to shreds with a carnal screech and black feathers rained down onto the floor between the two travelers.

The Doctor, without taking his eyes off of the fallen pinions, made a final modification to his work. The feathers wavered and fashioned into words.

'_We have her_.'

"Well, that seems ominous, doesn't it?" the Doctor remarked as he pocketed his device. "Pity I've no idea who they mean. Lucky this is fixed, though." He gave the TARDIS a loving pat.

"Translation circuit?" Peri asked nodding toward the console.

"Never you mind. Anything else on that envelope?"

Peri shrugged. "Just some numbers."

"Perfect!" the Doctor pulled a keyboard towards him and poised, ready to input the coordinates. Let's go find out who we're rescuing then, shall we?"


End file.
